1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held tool for easily cutting the shells of shellfish, such as crabs, shrimp, lobsters and the like, to more quickly and conveniently access the shellfish meat and remove it from the shell. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hand-held tool that has a shell cutter that includes at least one V-shaped cutting edge for cutting along and through a shellfish shell, and a bulbous, rounded end to assist in the removal of the shellfish meat from the shell after the shell has been cut open.
2. Description of the Related Art
Shellfish meat has been and continues to be a very popular food item. However, unless the shellfish meat happens to have been removed from the shell and either packaged or served after removal from the shell, one must himself remove the meat from the shell by slicing open the shell in order to access the meat to allow it to be removed for consumption.
Typically, shellfish, including crustaceans such as crabs and lobsters, which each have relatively tough outer shells, are sold in restaurants or for home consumption with the meat within the shell. Consequently, after cooking, the shell must be cut open using a suitable cutting device in order to access the meat. And although different forms of shell cutting devices have been proposed in the past for accessing shellfish meat, they have drawbacks that render their use inconvenient or problematical. For example, many previously-proposed shellfish cutting devices had one or more pointed ends that rendered their use potentially dangerous, and that also limited portability of the cutting devices in that they could be not be conveniently carried in one's pocket without making a hole in the pocket or sticking the wearer. The presence of pointed ends made attempts to carry such devices in one's pocket unsafe. In addition to the pointed ends, the previously-proposed devices also were generally large or lengthy, which also contributed to the unlikelihood of their being conveniently carried in one's pocket.
Furthermore, and in addition to the safety aspect, many of the previously proposed devices were not designed in such a way as to aid in conveniently removing the meat from the shell after the shell had been sliced open. Accordingly, the use of the previously-proposed devices was inconvenient, both from a cutting standpoint as well as from a meat removal standpoint.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the deficiencies inherent in the previously-proposed devices, and to provide a shellfish shell cutting and meat removal tool that is both quick and easy to use to cut a shell, that is safe to use and carry without a case or cover, and that also facilitates the removal of the shellfish meat once the shell has been cut.